Oregon 5, Washington 2: LaTempa, Boer hold the fort for Ducks

Norm Maves Jr./Special to The OregonianOregon's KC Serna leads off Saturday's game with a home run to left field against Washington in Seattle. Serna scored again in UO's victory on a Huskies' throwing error in the fifth inning.
SEATTLE -- The one thing Oregon needed more than anything in the world Saturday was a pitcher who could survive.

They got two. Justin LaTempa and Madison Boer gave the rest of the Ducks bullpen a badly needed rest and combined to beat Washington 5-2 at Chaffey Field.

The 22nd-ranked Ducks and the Huskies were coming off an emotional and exhausting, four-hour, 11-minute 13-11 Washington win on Friday night. They played in the rain and cold, used 43 of 50 available players between them and shoved six pitchers each into the breach.

So the last thing either team needed was to have to do it again.

LaTempa was determined to make sure that whoever it was, it wouldn't be Oregon (36-19, 11-12 in the Pacific-10 Conference). The big senior ground his way through six innings without his "A" game, then yielded to Boer to finish the game.

"With what happened last night," LaTempa said, "I couldn't give in, no matter what. I wasn't going to let it get out of hand and make our bullpen go through all that again.

"I was pretty pleased with that part of it."

He spread nine hits through his innings, one of which was a wind-blown -- like everything at this lakeside ball yard -- home run to Jacob Lamb in the third inning that gave the Huskies (27-25, 10-13) their only lead at 2-1.

LaTempa had Huskies on base all six of his innings, but emerged from the wreckage every time to post his fifth win in seven decisions.

None of those innings was more critical than the fifth. Oregon had recaptured the lead at 3-2 on Andrew Mendenhall's two-run fourth-inning double, but in the home half of the fifth the Huskies got men on second and third with nobody out.

Chase Anselment led off the inning with a double to right field, then Oregon shortstop KC Serna threw a routine grounder away at first.

Uh-oh.

But LaTempa induced a harmless foul fly ball to Mendenhall in left, got dangerous Caleb Brown to bounce out on one hop to J.J. Altobelli at third, then slid a strikeout pitch past Eric Peterson -- who already had two hits.

"That," Serna said, "was huge. After I threw that thing away, he picked us up right now. He didn't have his best stuff, but he ground it out the whole time. He was great."

Serna figured in the scoring the same way he figured in Friday night's game -- with a leadoff home run to left field. This one was on a 3-2 change from Washington starter Geoff Brown.

Mendenhall, starting in place of Marcus Piazzisi in left field -- Oregon coach George Horton started two fresh outfielders Saturday -- delivered off Brown in the fourth after Shawn Peterson singled to left and Altobelli drew a walk. Mendenhall smashed a hot line drive down the left-field line; Peterson trotted home and Altobelli came flying around well ahead of the throw.

Serna scored in the fifth on a throwing error by third baseman Lamb, then Oregon closed out the scoring in the sixth with a double steal. Horton signaled the play from the dugout.

Jett Hart took off from first and drew just enough attention from Washington reliever Adrian Gomez, out of Prairie High School, to distract him while Mendenhall scored from third.

By then Boer had the ball, and did right by it. He allowed one hit in the last three innings, struck out two and didn't walk anybody in recording his first save of the year. Everybody else was ready, but exhausted.

"I thought those were two tired teams out there," said Horton. "Both sets of athletes had been through a lot.

"I thought the story of the game was LaTempa and Boer. I thought Justin only had his "B" game instead of the dial-a-pitch you like to have. It could have gone crazy, but he wouldn't let it."